If It's not in the rules
by blood90
Summary: After careful observation of his competitors Naruto decides there's no way he's winning this Chunin exam normally. Good thing nothing he's never done anything normally...
1. Laying the Trap

In a burst of chittering shrieks the night sky was lit by glowing ethereal light, in one sharp thrust a boulder burst into a thousand tiny pieces revealing the sight of a young teen standing over the wreckage. For the smallest second a smirk lit his face, eyes burning with victory before blanking as the last dregs of energy left his system, with no further support his body teetered forward to the edge, and fell, about a metre to the ground where his face slapped into the mud.

"Hmm" lazily looking up from his book Kakashi regarded the unconscious form of his student, "I guess three really is your limit, mah, should be enough". Sighing he walked off towards his tent nose still firmly placed in his little orange book, leaving his student to a cold night in on the ground.

In the bushes a figure unfurled a small scroll working down the list of names making a small note against one. "6 out of 10" he muttered quickly stowing the scroll back within his shirt and hastily fleeing the scene.

Page Break

Thud. the training dummy shook as it took the full force or the powerful finger strike to its kidney, within a moment 3 more dummies were shaken in their stands from blows received. Kunai split the air three coming in high and a veritable swarm of shuriken following ready to turn the boy into a human pincushion. Seemingly unaware of the imminent danger coming towards his unprotected back the boy took a relaxed moment to catch his breath before twisting into a tight spin, hands straight out, letting a wall of pure energy form around him reflecting every projectile coming his way. Only once the barrage of weaponry finally stopped did the spin begin to slow coming to a stop revealing the boy with barely a hair out of place as he looked over the training ground around him.

"That will do for now Tenten" Neji called over the field, the gains made by this training session had been quite sufficient for one day he decided.

The Ground below his feet swelled for a second before two round balls burst through the earth, quickly followed by the head and shoulders of a disgruntled girl. "Really?" She sighed in exasperation "But i just finished layering this sweet trap, it was going to blow you to the moon!"

"Hm, Tenten Tenten, you forget your self" Starting to stride away from the clearing the boy looked back over his shoulder pupil less eyes gleaming in the dark "All is seen before these eyes"

Two training grounds over at the top of the highest tree a telescope was retracted back down to its smallest size. "Meh, maybe a 4".

Page Break

Nephelococcygia, the art of cloud watching is a hobby taking up by the very wise and the extremely lazy. Nara Shikamaru fit both those categories to a tee.

Laying on his back watching the clouds go by with no thought towards his responsibilities, his nagging mother, his troublesome teammates nor his upcoming fight. Right here, right now, he was at peace.

A slight snore escaped him as he lost his battle with consciousness and once more drifted off into slumber.

"I feel like even a one is a compliment"

Standing straight up not even bothering to hide, the not so hidden spy strolled away.

Page Break

The main shopping street was busy as usual civilian and ninja alike enjoying the pleasant warmth from the sun shining down upon them, from the shade of his hotel room Temari looked down upon the milling figures below. Watching as a small girl tripped and started to cry, immediately being scooped up my her mother and smothered with sympathy and affection, she turned away in disgust.

Behind her Kankuro yelped having hit himself with his wood plane for the millionth time.

She wondered how they could be so relaxed, so happy. Did they not realise they lived in a military village? Did they not fear the loss of their friends? The death of their village, their way of life?

Gasping Kankuro clutched at his neck, desperately scraping away at the sand choking him, Gaara having tired of the whimpering interrupting his mothers beautiful screaming.

In the end they must be crazy, Temari decided, completely ignoring the screaming now coming from behind her. After all, normal people didn't act like that.

Down in the dango stand across the street a customer swiftly paid his bill and headed out. "I'm not even sure where to start with that"

Page Break

"Bzzzzbzzbbzz" A lone figure stood among the trees sunlight streaming through the branches lighting up the swarms of beetles surrounding him, arcing in slow but purposeful swarms that moved in a constant swathe around him.

Close by a hidden observer slowly crawled back through the bushes, getting as far away from the bizarre sight in front of him.

"Nope, no, uh uh" Muttering to himself his stealthy movements not helped by his constant complaints, "10? 0? I dunno, that guy is way too weird"

Page Break

Finally arriving back home the tired spy crawled in through his window, removing the black bandana and dropping it on the floor to land among ramen cups and dirty socks. With a groan Uzumaki Naruto flung himself onto the couch sinking deep into the comfortable cushions eyes traveling up to the ceiling which displayed the results of his recent excursions.

From above he met the eyes of the 7 faces staring down at him, his opponents, his rivals, the people he must, no, would defeat. He was too prepared not too. Next to each picture he had written just one note on each. A single number.

"One, four, six, five, five, no idea, and 8. Hmm he could be a problem" Giving the ceiling one last look he headed towards the bedroom, he would need the sleep, after all he had training in the morning and he needed to get digging.

Chapter Break

It was two days before the final of the Chunin exams and Sakura had yet to see either of her teammates since the day after the second task ended. Losing to Ino had been a bitter experience, though if she was being perfectly honest with herself the idea that she was the strongest kunoichi of the year was a joke, her performance across the whole exam had been embarrassing and watching Naruto of all people out perform her had not sat well within her. In that mind she had not been idle the last month, pushing her training to new heights she felt stronger than ever before and now was looking to test herself against one of her teammates. If only she could find one.

For all of yesterday she had gone round training fields searching out her errant teammates, but she had found neither of them, she'd seen every other finalist at work, even shikamaru was seen running around the bounds of training ground 4, the fact he was desperately escaping an enraged Ino was beside the point. Yesterday had proven to be a fruitless search so today she was going straight to the source, which is what found her standing outside the front door of Konoha's number one surprising ninja.

"Knock Knock Knock"

The peaceful land of sleep, disturbed by the sounds of invaders. With an angry groan naruto rolled over deeper into his covers desperately escaping the noise. "Mmhm go away"

"Knock Knock Knock"

Attempting pure ignorance he took his pillows, wrapping them around his head in an attempt to ignore the outside world.

"Knock Knock CRASH" With a final jolt the door gave way beneath the furious fists beating on them allowing entry to the invader of nap time. "NARUTO Get up now, i know you're in there"

With a final sigh Naruto sat up, now fully awake and ready to meet his volatile teammate. Walking out into the Kitchen to find Sakura pacing up and down his kitchen muttering to herself about worthless teammates and lazy perverts.

"Morning Sakura-chan" With a wide smile Naruto greeted his friend, despite the rude awakening it was actually nice to see her after so long.

Sakura didn't seem to think so by the way she glared at him. "Naruto what are you doing its almost 11, why arn't you out training?"

"Heh heh no need to worry sakura chan, because i Uzumaki Naruto am going to win the entire chunin exam with my amazing plan" Thumb out in the Nice Guy (™) pose Naruto definitely started down the growing anger of the girl before him.

Sakura stared, open mouth, vein on her forehead steadily pulsing as the anger inside her grew, this idiot, this actual baka. He had the chance to be Chunin, to show the entire village what he was made of, and instead of training he was sleeping! She raised her fist ready to strike this stupid genin into a pile of mush beneath her.

"Wowa hold on Sakura-chan I'm not kidding i really have a plan" Even Naruto had a shred of self preservation and could tell now was not the time to bait the pinkette any further. "Please let me show you before you get mad"

"Hm, Fine. Lets go now, Training ground 4" Without another word she turned away towards the door, heading out into the streets of Konoha, Naruto hastily gathering supplies and running to catch up.

Page Break

One hour later in Training ground 4.

Sakura lay against the ground absolutely drenched, her eyes open and staring at the sky dejectedly.

"So what do you think" Naruto asked jumping down from the structure they had created, "Good plan right?"

Sakura looked up at the boy in front of her not even winded by their 'battle', she then looked toward the treeline where a pile of scrolls lay discarded a larger pile of unused ones sitting next to it.

"And your sure this is allowed?"

"Yep" Naruto happily grinned to himself.

"Fuking bullshit"


	2. Springing the Trap

Genin, Chunin, Jounin. The three ranks that make up the pillars of Ninja society. A Chunin is the most common Ninja to be found, out of the 10,000 ninja in Konoha over 7,000 are Chunin. A chunin is expected to take the bulk of missions mainly C and B, or acting as support on a large scale A-ranks, this means a chunin must be competent in a large variation of skills, able to fight and survive against enemy and missing nin alike to keep Konoha strong. The Chunin exam takes all this into account and tests each years stock of genin to decide who is worthy of progression through the ranks.

After 2 rounds there are 8 remaining.

Today they will fight.

Tiredly Naruto let out a loud yawn as he surveyed his surroundings. The other competitors had returned to the waiting box leaving just himself, Neji and the new proctor Genma below. Looking around the high walls of the arena encircled the pitch, smooth concrete forming a perfect circle round the field of grass and trees. Up above spectators shouted down at the field, shouting support, screaming abuse or just yelling at the proctor to get on with it, he watched one particularly enthusiastic fan launch the remains of his popcorn down at the field only for the invisible barrier to launch it right back at him. Grinning he turned away to look across at his opponent. Hyuga Neji was a dick. Naruto had decided that quite quickly after meeting him and his attitude in the preliminary round had only cemented this fact, a vicious grin took over his face, he was looking forward to this.

Neji looked across the field at the moron across from him. He was well rested, brimming with anticipation and chakra and could not wait to prove his superiority over the loud braggart opposite him. As the Proctor finally made the call to begin he sank into his stance and awaited the suicidal charge of his opponent that would surely come given the boys previous matches.

What he did not expect was for Naruto to stay in his relaxes slouch, not even sinking into a stance, instead reaching behind his back and taking out a sealing scoll and holding it before him.

"Byakugan"

Immediately activating his clans famous eyes he prepared for whatever was to come. Even a Hyuga was respectful of an unknown sealing scroll, only an idiot would not be.

"I can't beat you"

Mouth twitching in confusion at the unexpected words, Neji didn't relax for a second, he knew Uzumaki was to stupid to just give up.

"But" and with a foxlike grin Naruto lifted the scroll high, chakra flaring with activation "I can outlast you"

For a second nothing happened, then a small trickle of water spurted from the seal.

Neji crouched low, preparing to move forward before Uzumaki could fetch another scroll from his back pouch which he now saw was packed with scrolls identical in size and seal. Maybe one of them actually worked.

The trickle picked up to a steady flow.

Neji launched himself towards the blonde, fingers out chakra sharpened to a thin point around his outstretched finger, ready to crush the boy to oblivion.

A gurgle, and then a Jet rocketed out of the scroll, hitting Neji in the chest and launching him into the wall.

Naruto dropped the scroll reaching back for another. Unsealing. Dropping.

Then another and another so that before the eyes of the spectators the field of grass was submerged under the rising waves. Then the trees disappeared beneath the surface. Until finally Naruto stood on top the newly created lake on level with the lowest spectators. Smiling like he'd already won the tournament. To be fair, he probably had.

Page break

With a gasping breath Neji broke the surface, eyes warily fixed upon Naruto he created a stable hand hold with chakra to haul himself above the water, pulling himself to a standing pose, chest heaving up and down as he regained his breath. Looking up he furiously met the smug grin looking down on him. He wasn't sure why Uzumaki had done this, but he was going to show him the error of messing with a Hyuga.

Water sprayed up and Neji was gone from his position and shooting towards Naruto faster than the blonde could react, two Jyuken strikes to the chest and Naruto, burst into smoke. What? Turning abruptly he regarded the Naruto behind him that had most certainly not been there a second ago.

Ignoring the part of his mind telling him to stop and take stock of the situation he burst forth again, this time though Naruto was ready, as he drew closer the Blonde shifted feet turning as he, ran away…

Stop. Hold on.

Noticing Neji had stopped chasing him Naruto turned back round, before giggling and pulling a face at the Hyuga.

"Can't catch me blindo"

With a furious roar Neji darted at Naruto once more, ready to turn the boy to paste before his fingers.

Page break

Swipe. Dodge. Turn. Spring

Pant, pant. Move.

Stab. Turn. Jab. Dash. Pant pant gasp.

Neji's lungs burned, but his eyes glowed in anger as he glared at the boy across from him, still grinning, still doing that stupid dance, taunting him, mocking him, HIM, a Hyuga, his rage grew once more as he sprang across the water sending ripples out in all directions from the explosion of chakra below his feet.

Yet once again Naruto turned and ran, this time up on the wall of the stadium, not that that was very high by this point.

Gasp. Pant. "Why" Breathe. Collecting himself Neji stood and looked towards his opponent.

"Why are you running? Fight me!" He screamed hands clenched into fists. "Stay still!"

"Why?" For the first time since the battle started Naruto stopped grinning. "Because i really can't beat you, Your too strong for me, and i can admit that, then again…" and the grin once more lit up his face. "What sort of ninja fights fair?".

"Im weaker than you, im worse with weapons, i know less techniques, but if there's one thing that i have more of than anyone else in this exam" Pausing briefly to glance over at the competitors box meeting the gaze from the late arriving sasuke briefly before turning back to the fight. "Its Chakra!"

Turning back to Neji he walked back down to the water, 5 clones popping up around him. "So I'm not going to beat you, I'm simply going to exhaust you, and when you finally pass out from exhaustion I'll do it all again with the next competitor and the next. Until only i'm left. The winner." and with that the clones let fly with a barrage of Kunai and for the first time Neji was on the defence, knocking away the few on target with casual swipes he moved towards the clones ready to remove them with extreme prejudice.

A Jyuken strike to the head, the clone breaking down into a large cloud of smoke blocking the fight from the field of spectators. Only for the smoke to clear to reveal Neji standing tall within a circle of Clones each already part way through throwing the entirety of their weapons pouch at the Hyuga who looked on at the incoming hail of metal with disdain sinking low calves straining from preparation.

"Kaiten" Water rose in a wave around Neji, growing to almost a metre in height disrupting the footing of almost half the clones sending them tumbling into the water. The other half looked on as every single weapon thrown was rejected by the thick wall of chakra spinning around Neji.

As he began to slow his spin Neji passed over the battlefield, the clones were all identical, even to his eyes, but the ones currently picking themselves out the water made easy targets to start.

The second his spin stopped Neji was already moving. A Jab left, a clone bursts in the process of dragging itself from the water. Two more ceasing to exist as swift kicks to the head from behind end them. By the time Neji stops only 6 clones remain, in a tight diamond formation with two in the middle, that seemed to be preparing a new scroll.

Well he couldn't let that happen now could he.

His superior speed instantly brought him inside the circle right into the face of the Naruto holding the scroll, which was starting to smoke…

Shit.

The standard Konoha explosive seal was a 3 bit array that took up a 15 cm square and exploded with enough force to cause a metre radius hole in the earth.

The explosive Naruto had rather shoddily created was 7 seperate arrays focused on a central detonator and took up three metres of scoll.

Water rose in the air peaking at a height level with the Hokage Tower before descending back down again, several tonnes of water funneled down the tube created by the barriers that let nothing in or out of the tournament ground.

Neji came out of his most recent kaiten, he had only just got that up in time, as his smoking eyebrows could attest to. Despite the fact he had got the kaiten up the force had still sent the entire ball of chakra into the air. Below the water churned as white waves crashed the side of the arena, little problem to one such as him and with superb chakra control he landed flat upon the surface, feet sinking not even an inch into the water.

Just in time for about 4 cubic metres of water to crash directly on top of him.

Page Break

As silence returned to the stadium the spectators looked on in shock, each pair of eyes was glued to the surface of the water that continued to rock as it began to settle, a thin mist of vapour escaping up as the remnants of the explosion finally cleared the air. The empty surface of the water stilled, all was quiet, both competitors were gone.

A hand shot from the water, desperately clawing at the surface as a drenched figure scrambled on top of the surface, chest rising and falling as he drew in great mouthfuls of air into his starved lungs. Slowly Neji pushed himself into a crouch then, shakily, he stood. He'd blacked out for a second, as most people would after receiving a 3 tonne smack to the head, reactivating his Byakugan he winced as even that small use scraped the barrel of his emptying reserves of Chakra.

"I believe three was your limit" Relinquishing his hiding space now that Neji was all seeing again Naruto poked his head above the water, "Although, with all the water walking and protective chakra you're probably past that arent you?". Neji did not answer, he didn't need to. His hunched stance, the rise and fall of his shoulders did all the talking for him.

"It matters not" Sinking once more into the stance of the Hyuga, Neji's eyes closed as he talked more to himself than his opponent, "I will win, because I'm a Hyuga!"

He dashed forwards once more his last reserves of chakra pushed into one desperate attack, at speeds to fast for Naruto to even react too he was in front of him fingers driving into the blonde in sharp thrusts.

"Two Palms!" Neji Exclaimed, his last desperate attack just starting to pick up speed he moved straight into the next barrage fingers flying towards the already reeling opponent, "Four Pal.." his fingers met smoke, as the first strike of his strongest attack proved enough to burst the clone. His unexpected forward momentum taking him forward his leading foot meeting the water, and sinking straight through.

"Impossible" With a grunt of effort his foot burst back to the water as Neji pivoted on his back leg to turn his body round facing the empty arena again.

"Where are you Uzumaki!" It was impossible, nothing could hide from the Byakugan, and yet there was no sign of the boy, the surface was empty, nothing hid within the depths. "Impossible" Neji whispered a leg falling through the water again as he searched for the very depths of his chakra, but found nothing. And so his other leg gave and he sank down into the water, the full effect of his chakra exhaustion becoming apparent as he felt his muscles seize up, his arms refused to move, his legs wouldn't kick and Neji sank down into the lake the area had become.

Down he sank past the tops of the tree's, the branches swaying ethereally within the water as Neji brushed through them laying to rest against the grassy floor amid the piles of scroll discarded at the start of the fight, still glowing with the remains of there chakra input as they had since the fight started. His lungs burned, his body ached Neji could hold on no more.

His Byakugan went out, and he was left blind in the dark.

Finally. Sensing his time was now Naruto burst from his transformation, gathering up the scroll surrounding him and shoving them back in his pockets, ready for use in the next battle. Finally he turned to Neji grabbing the long strands of hair now floating freely in the water and kicked off the ground with a chakra enhanced push. He burst from the surface in a graceful leap, letting go of Neji's hair and letting him soar straight through the now ineffectual barrier and into the lap of his sensei Gai, who caught him in a great bear hug singing of the youth of the majestic fight he had just witnessed.

Naruto landed on the water turning towards Genma who had come down from the arena's edge where he'd ran to once the water came.

"Winner Uzumaki Naruto"

The loud cheering that followed the statement of his victory shocked Naruto, not even the villagers of Konoha could boo him after the fight they'd just witnessed, it wasnt everyday you saw a tsunami, whirlpool and geyser all at once.

The grin across his face had managed to grow even more and threatened to split his cheeks in two if it got any wider. Naruto cheered and threw his fist in the air in triumph, he'd done it, his plan worked. He had not been fully sure, despite his boasting to Sakura but the proof was in the pudding as they said and Naruto had just whipped up a particularly good cake. With one last wave to the crowd Naruto jumped up to the spectators box, the arena door now being unuseable.

"Wait hold on" Genma called after him "Get rid of this water before the next match, Shikamaru, Temari, thats you two by the way"

Naruto turned back to Genma, the biggest shit eating grin yet on his face.

"Ehhh, why would i do that" Tilting his head in confusion he held up another scroll letting it unfurl to reach a highlighted bit of text. "Rule 44b states the area stays in the condition left by the previous match, you wouldn't want to break the rules would you"

Understanding dawned upon the remaining spectators, half formed plans of beating the blonde before he summoned the water gone.

Shikamaru summed it up perfectly as he considered his meagre chakra reserves, eyeing up the older more ninjutsu intentive sand nin next to him. "Ugh, Troublesome"


	3. The Trap continues

Temari wobbled across the surface of the water, feet sinking and rising on every step, it was lucky that she had taken those border patrols she figured, else she would never have known how to do this in the first place.

Behind her Shikamaru sighed as he walked on the arena lake, as the starting circle was erased he stayed where he was, right by the wall, no point walking further than he had too after all.

Genma groaned at the typical Nara laziness on display, before shrugging and proclaiming the match started, quickly jumping onto the arena wall before the barrier could come into existence.

Temari readied her fan, held behind her back and waiting to strike out at whatever came her way. Shikamaru stayed where he was.

"Well…" Temari called across the open water, "Are you going to attack?"

"You know, i was going to forfeit this tournament" Shikamaru looked to the sky, unfortunately clear of clouds, bright sun beaming down on Konoha as usual. "However Narutos being a pain as usual" he looked back at Temari, or rather at her feet. "He's made it easier for me to win than give up, Shadow Possession complete".

Temari froze as the shadow that had travelled through the dark water rose up again to her leg, connecting her to Shikamaru putting her completely at his mercy. Taking a few steps back she found herself copying shikamaru exactly as he lifted a chakra coated hand up to stick firmly against the arena wall, hers left grasping at air. Temari had only a second to realise her position as shikamaru dropped the chakra flow to his legs leaving him dangling from the hand holding him to the arena. Temari became the second contestant to take a slow sink to the bottom world fading to black as she wasn't even allowed to close her mouth thanks to Shikamaru on the surface.

Page Break

Kankuro stood in place as his match started, he'd never practised walter walking as much as temari had and the fact he was managing to stand was surprising enough to him, no need to tempt fate by taking a step forward. As he was engulfed by a swarm of bugs he rather quickly changed his mind about that, stepping forward as he flailed wildly at the insects crawling over him. His focus gone, his control slipped and he fell down into the water, conveniently washing all the bugs off. 'Huh, that was useful'.

Unsealing his puppet underwater he found the light suna wood made the puppet float in space, so holding his breath he sent it out to attack. Safe from the bugs above him and with Shino unable to clearly see into the water below it was not long before he managed to catch the bug man with a senbon, the paralysis it carried more than enough to knock him out.

"Winner Kankuro"

Pulling himself onto the arena side Kankuro smiled up at his sister gloatingly, at least one of them wasn't an embarrassment to suna. Her reaction didn't quite fit his expectations as she choked trying not to laugh, fully hunched over and hand covering her mouth. The rest of the audience had no reason to old back and instead of cheering Kankuro found himself the but of a joke he couldnt understand as the stadium erupted with laughter at the genins expense.

Looking up at the fight screen Kankuro saw himself on video, wet catsuit ears drooping over his face, mascara tears running down his eyes, his face a mess of bugs and running makeup.

With a rather high pitched scream he ran to the competitors box and out the back desperately searching a toilet to wash out he remains of the makeup.

Page Break

Finally it was his turn. Sasuke hopped lightly on to the water, chakra bursting the second it was needed to form a cushioning layer that his feet landed on, for just a second floating in the air before settling down onto the surface. Not even a ripple gave away his presence. Gaara stared down at the water in apparent confusion, 'lucky for him' sasuke though, maybe Naruto's stupid prank would be useful after all if the sand nin wasn't comfortable in the current conditions.

He smirked up at the suna nin, already plotting a thousand ways to increase the red heads discomfort, when Gaara took a step forward onto the water, and sank straight down, like a stone.

For a full minute the entire stadium watched as a stream of bubbles slowly popped along the surface, at one point a hand of sand thrust into view, waving blindly as if searching for its opponent before its base dissolved in the water and it fell apart.

The bubbles stopped.

Sasuke froze, he couldn't move, could barely think, under the weight of the oppressive dark chakra that came out of nowhere and slammed into his senses. He could feel it crawling over his skin and he knew that whatever it was, whatever was down there, could not be defeated, not by him, not even the Hokage, This was a Monster.

And then it stopped. The feeling of death leaving the air as quickly as it had arrived as to the shock of all Gaara's broke the surface of the water, his gourd now empty of sand acting as a large buoyancy aid. He was out cold.

Up in the stands Temari turned to the shocked clean faced Kankuro, "I guess no one ever showed him water walking".

In the stadium 60 Suna Ninja sank low in their seats, looking out at the field commander they breathed a sigh of relief as he ate his last dango, the signal to abort the mission.

Up in the Kage stands Orochimaru of the Sannin paled as he watched his allies sidle out of the arena one by one. "Well that was quite boring" by his side the legendary God of Shinobi Sarutobi Hiruzen flicked some ash from the end of his long pipe, "the crowd seem to think so anyway, why a whole battalion of 'civilians' just left". Sinking deeper into his chair, quite thankful for the thick veil hiding his face from view Orochimaru groaned in discomfort.

He really hated that Kyuubi brat.


	4. Reverse the trap

If Kakashi was being honest, and that would be a first for him, this was not how he expected this exam to play out. He never thought for a second that Sasuke could actually win, well by default, technically Naruto had been the one to defeat Gaara, and wasn't that as big a shock, if not more so. How much simpler the 2nd shinobi war would have been he thought if we realised all we needed to do to beat the Ichibi was make it try and swim.

Looking over at the redhead who looked weirdly cute all curled up and snoring while still dripping onto his sister who seemed to be holding him as one holds an activated explosive tag. And wasn't that another surprise, a Nara making it to the second round simply be deciding it was to troublesome not to, well at least his mother would be pleased. What was more interesting was the number of spectators slinking off the second Gaara was defeated, a shame, Kakashi had been looking forward to cracking some Suna skulls, well, he could always hope Oto tried a solo suicide attack.

Oh well guess that just gave him more time to watch his cute little students absolutely steamroll this exam, heh take that Gai, and to think people said they weren't ready for the Chunin exams. Though he did wonder when Naruto got that good with seals, he certainly hadn't taught him anything and he knew Ebisu wasn't any good with them, so what had the man been teaching him, spotting the trainer on the other side he executed a quick sushin appearing directly behind Konoha's number one trainer.

"Yo, Ebisu" Startling the man with a gentle tap on the shoulder Kakashi settled into his casual pose purposefully looking as laid back as possible.

"Oh it's you, what do you want Kakashi" Ebisu looked over his shoulder just to confirm it was the scarecrow behind him before looking back to the arena floor where the proctor was doing his best to drag Shikamaru back into the ring. "Mah mah, why so angry, I just wanted to know what you've been teaching my cute little student for the past month" Turning again Ebisu stared directly into Kakashi's lone eye, vein beginning to throb over his left eye, "After all, sealings not really your style is it?".

Ebisu looked ready for a melt down, the twitching vein had turned to a permanently bulged protrusion ready to burst from his forehead. "TEACH HIM! I didn't _Teach Him_ anything; the little brat insulted me and ran away during our first lesson"

"Oh my, well it could be worse, why are you so angry hmm" Tilting his head, one eye curving into a smile, a look only Kakashi could pull off.

"He burned my Icha-Icha collection! I know it was him, I went into my private study and a tripwire set off some exploding tags, followed by paint grenades. Orange, Paint grenades. I know it was him, when I get my hands on him he's dead!" With that Ebisu devolved back into muffled raging, staring down at his hated target who was busy laughing at shikamaru who was floating lazily in the water, despite Genma's warnings he would start the match if Shikamaru was ready or not.

On one hand Kakashi thought, he was proud of his student, making a full Jounin dissolve to tears in public was a worthy goal, on the other hand, destroying Icha Icha was a vile crime committed by only the most villainous of men. Kakashi would have to have a long talk with Naruto on the benefits of the books, maybe a practical lesson would help? He'd been meaning to take that trip to Otaku Gai. Oh looks like the match was finally ready to start, Genma had given up and was letting Shikamaru lie there seeing as there was no rule stating he had to stand.

The 5th match was starting.

Page Break

Shikamaru lay back in the water, floating just on the surface as he stared straight up at the sky, still cloudless, waiting for the match to start. He wasn't sure how this fight would go, Naruto must have seen how he defeated Temari, even he wouldn't be stupid enough to fall for the same thing, especially as it was Naruto's own trap that let Shikamaru do it. Nonetheless, it was his best chance for an easy victory and there was a good 30% chance Naruto hadn't been paying attention during the other fights.

As the countdown reached zero Shikamaru quickly sent out his shadows and caught Naruto in his binding. "Shadow possession complete", though he seemed to be victorious Shikamaru didn't believe it for a second, that was far too easy, Naruto didn't even move and in fact was still smiling.

"You know you impressed me in the last match Shika" Naruto called out, mouth still able to move through some hax in the shadow possession Jutsu "It was nice to see someone else had read the rulebook, there's no need to be standing in the circle to start a fight, then again, I feel some rules are more traditional than others" and the clone burst into smoke, as did all the water.

Suddenly finding himself 15 metres in the air Shikamaru looked down to see a full army of Naruto clones preparing to throw Kunai, and in the centre circle what must be the original was standing smugly, a sealing scroll open on the ground in front of him.

"I forfeit"

Just before the clones could begin turning him into a human pincushion Shikamaru took the easy way out, now if someone could stop his fall that would be great.

Cheering in victory a couple of clones seemed happy enough to catch the Nara, unfortunately they didn't take his speed into account and as he hit them he turned them all to smoke and hit the ground hard.

"Oops, Sorry Shika" Rubbing his head in embarrassment Naruto moved to help him to his feet. "Hmm that's alright" Despite his now bruised head Shika found himself grinning with the blonde "You gave me a decent reason to give up, don't think my mum can shout at me for that one"

Laughing together both boys headed back towards the now open again door into the stands, and if Naruto seemed to be walking funny, pausing every few steps, well no one seemed to notice.

Page Break

The Arena was strangely empty, Sasuke thought, looking round the now blank dirt floor, either Naruto had no idea what he was doing with seals or he was incredibly gifted, as his seal seemed to have sucked up everything within the 10 metre radius of the ring, tree's, grass, rocks, even the rough edges of the arena wall had been pulled in. Knowing Naruto, Sasuke was betting on some mix of the two, he probably wasn't trying to do this, but his stupid luck must have dragged him through.

This had given him an unexpected bonus though, as a puppeteer's main skill, hide and surprise attack, had been completely taken away by the lack of anything resembling cover.

Kankuro seemed to have realised this too, judging by the way he stood as far back from Sasuke as possible, one of his puppets already out ready to start the second the match began.

Which was now. Genma started the match, ready for this whole thing to be over already, turning he prepared to jump on the wall again before stopping as he realised now the water was gone there was no exscuse not to stay in the arena with the crazy genin. Oh well, he thought, at least none of these one's use large scale area of effect attacks.

Kankuro cursed as he dodged a brace of shuriken, focusing instead on rushing Karasu towards the Uchiha, hiding was out, and Sasuke would decimate him in close combat , guess that only left one option.

Sasuke frowned as he dodged a poisoned swipe from the puppets arms, getting to the puppeteer wa proving more difficult than anticipated as the puppet continuously blocked him. Well when in doubt, follow the Uchiha family moto, 'If in doubt, burn it to hell".

Karasu paused, arms raised up as it began to spin, Kankuro jumping on top.

Sasuke paused, hands flashing through a list of seals before meeting at his mouth.

"Senbon Anhilation" Senbon shot out of Karasu's chest from all sides, coming out in a seemingly neverending rain to spike everything around into oblivion.

"Katon Endan" Sasuke shot a series of small fireballs from his mouth in a seemingly random spread, trying to cover as wide an area as possible.

Genma fled to the stadium wall, he wasn't paid enough for this shit.

Sasuke viewed the incoming storm of needles, temporarily freezing as he remembered the last time he faced a storm of senbon, before fluidly dodging each and every one, building up speed he began to make seals once more as he ran towards Kankuro.

Kankuro watched the incoming fireballs with disdain, jumoing down from Karasu once the puppet had stopped spinning he pulled it infront of him, simply tanking the fireballs with Karasu's flame retardant treated wood. 'Really' he thought as he felt the impact of several fireballs into his puppet 'did they really think after 100 years the puppet corps had never found a way to counteract fire?' Laughing to himself he moved back around Karasu to check if is opponent was still alive.

That possibly saved his life as a chittering blade of lightning smashed through his puppet, right where his head had been, jumping back Kankuro was forced to release Karasu as he tried to make ground between him and the blade of lightning that was once more trying to stab him.

Sasuke grunted as he released the Chidori after another failed swipe, it was becoming costly to hold it and wasn't really needed, dropping back into the interceptor stance he launched a sweeping kick heavily into Kankuro's side, forcing the boy to wince bringing his arms down to cover his side. Sasuke exploited this mercilessly, catching the Puppeteer right in the nose with a vicious punch next, the bone giving way under his fist as blood splattered the other boys face. A chop to the kidneys, and vaulting his head was all he needed to end it, a kunai held to Kankuro's neck.

"Winner Uchiha Sasuke"

The adrenaline slowly wore off but Sasuke's heart continued to beat rapidly, his excitement peaked he couldn't wait for his next match, he felt unbeatable, he felt strong, strong enough to beat Gaara, Kankuro, Naruto, everyone.

He strode back to the centre of the ring and stopped looking straight up to the spectators box, but Naruto was already jumping down to join him, knowing Sasuke wouldn't be able to wait.

They met in the centre circle, Spinning red eyes meeting blue, two matching grins across the faces of the two, as they stared from less than a metre away from one another.

"You sure you wanna go now Teme, Don't you want to recharge some chakra, I could always fight with one arm that might make it even"

"Hmm, Dobe"

"Well, don't say I warned you"

And without the proctor giving a word, they raced towards each other.

To prove once and for all, who was strongest.


	5. The last Trap

Sasuke charge towards Naruto, hands already in pouches withdrawing knives and stars to throw at his rival. Letting fly with the first salvo of projectiles he rushed left, already anticipating Naruto's dodge thanks to his eyes. Striking out at Naruto's chest as the blonde unknowingly moved into his path he scored to quick hits into his stomach, leaning back to launch a kick up towards the blondes face.

Naruto grabbed the extended foot, using it to throw Sasuke straight across the arena, this gave him time to quickly made a squad of clones, sending them forward in a suicidal rush as he withdrew an explosive tag, lighting it and sending it straight into the middle of the clones, now at half strength as Sasuke tore through them.

The tag went off, destroying the rest of the clones, Sasuke dived left, barely escaping the heated blast as he impacted the ground, he just had time to stand before a new group of clones rushed onto him. A sweeping kick took one, three quick jabs taking another.

Two Narutos grabbed his arm and he just had time to turn to see one more rushing in to deliver a devastating punch. He didn't give it a chance. His loose legs shot out catching the onrushing clone in the head, swinging back to dispel the one on his right with a double kick to the gut, both feet back on the ground giving him ample leverage to launch the other clear across the clearing.

Turning towards the now larger group of waiting clones he extended one arm forward, fingers curling into a come hither motion. "Bring it" He called towards the sea of Naruto's.

"Teme" With a matched war cry the army charged as one.

Naruto watched as Sasuke destroyed his army. It was almost depressing, even a 100 of him weren't enough to beat Sasuke. He sighed as with a roar Sasuke unleashed fire on half the field, catching almost 20 clones within the blaze.

He had wanted to beat Sasuke normally, with his fists, but Sasuke really was a genius, he could see that. The way Sasuke fought was almost beautiful, not a single movement wasted as he span around the clones, each strike hitting, every weapon connecting, everywhere he moved Sasuke left billowing white smoke in his wake.

"Well it was a nice try, better stick to the original plan"

Sasuke moved towards the last clone. The last five minutes had been a mad dance of arms and legs, he could give Naruto that at least, he made for good endurance training. The clones had even managed a couple of hits on him, his lip bled from the swelling below his right eye, one arm hung slightly lower than the other, compensating for the bruising he surely had on the shoulder there from when a clone threw another straight into him.

The last clone had stood back for a while continuously throwing weapons at him throughout the battle, but by now it's supplies seemed to have ran dry and it was preparing for hand to hand as he let loose a straight forward right hook. The clone dodged, diving towards his feet and knocking them both onto the ground. Sasuke rolled with the attack ending up on top it, delivering a two fingered jab to its neck and ending its life.

Revealing the glowing scroll beneath it.

"Shi-"

Once more a Jet of water shot into the sky, this time carrying Sasuke up with it as the first of Naruto's buried scrolls went off. The other scrolls hit their own timers, each releasing into the air, catching Sasuke once more, shooting him back into the air just as he was nearing the ground.

The second time down Sasuke was allowed to fall, and he fell cleanly into the water with a graceful dive, curving his body to use the falls momentum to launch himself back out again, to land once more on his feet.

"Really Dobe, your resorting to this tired tactic" Sasuke mockingly taunted the blonde now stood opposite him "I may not have much Chakra left but I easily have enough to beat you".

"Screw you Teme" Summoning more clones to his side, Naruto stared down is friend "Don't get mad because you got outsmarted by me, you got so sucked up in fighting my clones you let me do whatever I wanted, not that I needed to of course, I was just tiring you out".

It seemed to have worked, Naruto was as chipper as ever and surrounded by clones just as energetic. Sasuke however, despite his confidant stance was clearly winded, two fights in quick succession along with a fair amount of chakra use had left him drained, he would not win a battle of attrition.

"Naruto!" Sasuke Charged forwards once more, determined to end this battle before his body failed him. He reached into his weapon pouch, retrieving his last two shuriken, sending them on with a quick flick, taking out two clones with well placed head shots, he then shouldered straight through another clone in his way coming face to face with the real Naruto and letting loose with a right hook.

Naruto barely deflected the blow, countering with a left kick that sauke caught with his arm before bringing the right arm down from its failed attack in a vicious elbow that destroyed the clone that managed to Kawarimi with the original, sacrificing itself so that Naruto could escape as another 5 clones dogpiled the temporarily stationary Uchiha.

For a second Sasuke gave way under the weight of the clones smothering him, releasing his chakra he sank back through the water, swimming down and away from his pursuers. Reaching the bottom he picked up a kunai resting on the arena floor, holding it in a reverse grip he looked up to see all 5 clones had followed him down.

Pushing off in a chakra assisted burst, Sasuke tore through all 5 at once with his newly found weapon, shooting straight through the surface to land right across from Naruto.

"Is that all You've got?" Flicking his head to one side, Sasuke wiped his hair from his eyes to give him an unrestricted view.

"Heh, I can go forever, Teme" Another 10 clones appeared round Naruto who seemed unaffected by the continuous chakra usage.

Sasuke jumped back from the crowd, landing on the last foot of wall poking above the water line, hands forming familiar seals once more. "Hmm time to end this, as usual you've missed the fatal flaw in your plan, well, to be expected really, your not a Dobe for nothing after all"

With that he touched his lightning encased hand to the water, and Naruto screamed.

Page Break

It burned, that was all Naruto could feel as his skin lit up in pain, every nerve screamed out as electricity coursed through is body, for what felt like an age, but in reality was just a second he screamed out in pain. As it finally stopped he sank down to his knees, drawing in harsh gulps of air as steam rose from his body, his clothes dried out as the water in them was boiled by the heat, leaving him covered in burns that softened and faded even as he lay there panting.

Looking up he saw Sasuke walk towards him, slowly, confidently, Sasuke thought he had won.

Maybe he had won.

No. Not like this. He had worked too hard, trained, prepared, planned. He would not be defeated by Sasuke, not this time.

Sasuke was standing over him now, one leg raised to deliver a final brutal axe kick to his head. With a roar Naruto pushed his bleeding palms down on the surface of the water, chakra released in an unintelligible scream, a huge plume of smoke sent him flying out of the way. Straight into Sasuke, who was unprepared for the sudden movement and was caught in the stomach by the flying blonde sending them straight up into the air.

Releasing more and more chakra from his hands and feet Naruto escaped higher in the air, leaving behind Sasuke who had began to fall already.

Sasuke landed cleany, and seeing Naruto had reached the peak of his ascent he grinned, hands forming seals as he prepared to fry his rival as he fell back to earth.

Naruto drew two kunai as he fell, holding both straight out as he dived head first towards Sasuke as he focused his entire being into spearing his teammate.

As Naruto fell down to 10m from the ground Sasuke's sharingan trakked the exact timing to launch, pushing the last of his chakra into this final attack, Sasuke focused onto the blonde, three seals left he pushed chakra from his stomach, up his throat and rose his arms to release a fiery hell.

Every sense focused onto Naruto.

Which was why he never noticed the Toad rising from the depths that swallowed him whole.

Naruto fell to land on the water as the toad let loose a long burp of smoke, evidently Sasuke had continued his jutsu. With a last burp the toad spat out the Uchiha, who smoked from the mixture of cooked skin and burning acid he'd coated himself in when he attempted to burn through a Summoned toads stomach.

"Hoy kid" The toad didn't seem happy with his meal "What the hell, I like spicy food but that was a little too fiery, even for me"

"Ah, I'm sorry Gamaten! Let me call you back later and I'll have some real food for you"

"Hmm you better, and Sake too" Appeased for now the summon disappeared in an explosion of smoke.

Peeking out from behind the wall Genma judged it safe enough to come out of hiding once more.

"The winner, and Tournament victor….UZUMAKI NARUTO!"

With the match finally over the spectators began screaming and cheering, the last match had been a thriller of ups and down with tactics and skill from both sides. A small amount of grumbling came from those that bet big on the Uchiha to win but the rest were ecstatic from the display.

Naruto leaped in the air screaming and waving his hands around. He'd done it, his plan had worked, though Sasuke had nearly had him all the same, that last second summoning had only come to him at the last moment and wasnt that stupid. Create an entire water based tactic and not involve your amphibious summons, so stupid. Oh well he had time for new tactics later, right now he was celebrating his win.

Sarutobi looked down on the boy celebrating his victory, chuckling to himself at the continued antics from the Jinchuriki who was busy splashing water everywhere in his celebration, getting a lot of the spectators wet as he did so. Turning to his not so well disguised student he continued his feigned ignorance.

"Well that really was a good show right _Kazekage kun_ "

The veiled head turned towards him, Orochimaru knew that his blasted sensei knew, but had je known before or had he just realised now?

Suna had retreated, the bastards running before he even started, and without their sacrif- ahem distraction his forces would never even get past the walls before the now alert Konoha forces wiped them out. Looking at his smirking sensei he thought it might be worth it to attack anyway, just to wipe the grin off that smug bastards face!

Breathing in, controlling his fury and easing back into the relaxed mindset he was known for he made the sign of retreat to Kabuto.

"Yes Hokage Dono, most surprising tactics, i see i must watch out for this Naruto he has the makings of a strong fighter"

"It was his surprising tactics i liked" The Hokage replied, stuffing tobacco into his pipe, turning his back to the other Kage in a way he knew made Orochimaru twitch as he restrained from throwing it all away and attacking then and there. "He really knew how to trick his opponent, let them think they were inside his defence, before contouring with one quick maneuver" Lighting his pipe and seemingly accidently blowing smoke right into the other Kages face. "A lesson we would all do well to learn, right?"

"Yes very wise" Orochimaru spoke through gritted teeth. Standing to leave, he'd had enough of this, he was going back to Oto where he dispensed the insults, not received them.

Sarutobi chuckled as he watched his student leave, with any luck the anbu had successfully tagged most of the leaving Oto ninja, soon they would know exactly where Orochimaru's bases were, when dealing with a snake you have to destroy its lair after all.

Maybe he could speak to Naruto about that, flooding the bases all at once seemed like an appealing option, though that did raise a question, where did Naruto get all that water from?

An hour ago, at a certain nearby spring

Jiraiya had been greatly enjoying himself this past hour, with everyone off to the tournament the outside springs were deserted. Just him and the three babes skinny dipping in the mid morning sun, heh life was good.

He was torn from his fantasies as screams started from the pool, peeking over the bushes he saw the miraculous site in front of him, the water had all disappeared sucked into some dimension unknown, leaving nothing but a dried up lake, some fish and three very naked ladies.

Rocketing back into the undergrowth from the force of the blood spurting from his nose he grinned as only a true pervert can. He made a vow right there, whoever had done this was a true man, worthy of praise and thanks, maybe he could make this person his student? With his training he could make anyone stronger.

 **Thanks for reading, wow this is the first fic i've ever completed, the chapters just all seemed to flow together. To be honest i've had this idea for a while, like a year, just never really had the motivation to write it.**

 **I'm thinking of starting a long running fic, which is currently in the planning phase still so watch out for that, it's going to be a Naruto/Fairy tail crossover where Fairy tail is the future of the Naruto world, like the very distant future. It should all make sense in the first chapter. So watch out for that.**

 **Lastly here's an omake, the thoughts of Gaara as he sank.**

It was with confusion that Gaara watched the first few matches, as ninja fought atop the water, he remembered this from before, vague memories of missions along the suna border coming to mind. But as he thought on it he remembered Temari walking along the liquid surface of winding rivers, Kankuro too, well if they could he certainly could, he was stronger after all.

When his turn came he moved up to the edge, pausing for a second before stepping onto the surface, certain it would hold him.

As he fell through he only felt surprise, then outrage, how dare this water not support him. His outrage quickly turned to shock, the water was touching him! It was going straight through his sand armour, no it was taking it away! Screaming in desperation he ordered his sand out to destroy the water, only for his attacks to dissolve within the ocean.

Panicking now he inhaled water and began choking. No, Mother. What is this, how is it hurting me? Mother Stop it!

As he drank more water his vision began fading and Gaara passed out.

FINALLY

Shukaku tore free from his miserable container letting out insane laughter as he took over his poor vessel, his newly formed right arm launching out and, dissolving…

What? No! Shukaku screamed as his newly formed body was broken apart by the water, no he was finally free, how had he already been imprisoned!

The body fully dissolved and Gaara sank to the ground once more, in a last ditch chance to at least save his container Shukaku used the last of his disappearing presence to form a quick futon, blowing the air straight up Gaara's gourd, letting him begin to float to the surface.

With that Shukaku dissolved once more, next time, next time he would destroy all in his path, and then he would burn all the water in the world, so this would never happen again.

Inside Naruto's mindscape, the Kyuubi roared with laughter as he watched perhaps the most ineffectual bijuu escape ever, he had to tell the rest of his brethren, Shukaku would never live this down.


End file.
